Possession
by nejiandtentenfan
Summary: Neji has been gone from Team Gai for 2 years since he became an ANBU member. Tenten, of course, takes the situation harshly and falls into depression. What will happen when she gets hurt and he's the one who saves her? [NejiTen]
1. Duties

**A/N: I don't own Naruto, enjoy! **

---

Chapter 1: Duties

The brown haired kunoichi couldn't sleep. A haunting image kept flashing through her mind, it wouldn't leave her alone. Tenten rolled over in her bed and looked at the time displayed on her small alarm clock. Bright red numbers flashed at her through the darkness of the night, '3:06 AM.' Tenten sat up straight, brought her knees close to her body, and wrapped her arms around them. This same routine would happen every night since _that incident_ happened exactly two years ago.

_FLASHBACK _

_Tenten was 16-years-old and full of spunk. She had everything she could ask for…except for one. Yes that was correct, the one thing she was missing in her life was the thing she had yearned for since she was just a Genin at 13-years-old. The love of her teammate, Hyuuga Neji. She'd had a crush on him from the day of their first training session together. But he always ignored her, always pushed her silly feelings aside. _

_She knew today was the day she would finally gussy up her courage and tell him how she really felt. How she truly felt about him all these years. They've trained with each other almost every single day, they always went on missions together, even if he didn't have feelings for her, even he couldn't be emotionless enough to harshly reject her…could he? _

_She walked over to the training grounds where Team Gai was to hold yet another training session. As soon as she reached the training ground, she saw Lee and Neji kicking two separate tree stumps in perfect unison to Gai Sensei's count. _

_Gai looked over when he glimpsed Tenten entering. He grinned kindly, "Tenten, my usually-punctual student! What is the reasoning behind your tardiness today?" _

_Neji and Lee stopped kicking and faced Tenten. Neji looked at Tenten with his usual emotionless expression. Tenten blushed when she saw his face before looking back at Gai Sensei to answer his question. _

_She stammered, "I…uh…had a lot on my mind…" _

_She glanced once more at Neji to see what he was doing. He was still looking at her blankly, she couldn't find a single hint of emotion in his face. _

_"Well Team Gai works hard! So quickly Tenten, please join our exercise on that tree stump!" Gai Sensei pointed at the tall stump next to Neji's. _

_Tenten blushed a bit deeper before walking over to her assigned stump, head down the whole time, avoiding eye contact with the Hyuuga. _

_Tenten mumbled quietly, eyes focused on the ground, "Ohayo…Neji…" _

_Neji didn't know why his usually energetic teammate was so timid today. He simply grunted back, "Ohayo." _

_"We will start from the beginning! One! Two! Three…" Gai Sensei continued to call out numbers in a rhythmic beat. _

_Tenten couldn't concentrate on training, she was too busy thinking of the words to say. Was she going to tell him straight forward? Or was she going to make small talk and lead into the main point? Where could they talk privately though with Gai Sensei and Lee? And what time would they talk? All these questions spinning inside Tenten's head made the confession she wanted to make even more difficult. _

_"Tenten…Tenten…TENTEN!" Gai Sensei yelled at her. _

_Tenten snapped out of her daydreaming and spun around, looking at Gai Sensei. Neji and Lee were staring at her, wondering what had gotten into her. _

_Gai Sensei lowered his voice, "Did you not hear I told you all to take a five minute break now?" _

_Tenten apologized, "Gomen," she bowed deeply. _

_She saw this was her chance to talk to Neji. _Either now or never_, she told herself. _

_She walked over to Neji, who was now walking over to his satchel. _

_She stammered quietly, "Um…Neji…I need to tell you something." _

_Neji turned around and gave her the familiar emotionless look. He nodded, waiting for her to speak. _

_"I uh…we've been teammates for so long and…um…I think I…" she started. She looked at the groun and bit her lower lip, not knowing how she should say it. _

_She didn't have to because Gai Sensei broke into their conversation, "Neji, Tenten, Lee! I got a message from the Hokage for all of us to go to her office ASAP!" _

_Tenten looked in the air, a bird had dropped a note from the sky. Tsunade-sama must've sent it. _

_Tenten sighed and told Neji, "Nevermind." _

_He nodded and Team Gai sprinted to the Hokage's office. _

_--- _

_In the Hokage's office were the Konoha 11. Naruto, Sakura, Ino, Chouji, Shikamaru, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Neji, Tenten, Lee, and the Team Senseis. Sasuke was still gone in his search for power with Orochimaru – which of course still upset Sakura greatly. _

_"I have called all of you here today for a very important matter," the Tsunade spoke loudly to the crowd of people. _

_There were several nods in the audience before she continued. _

_"ANBU has decided to take in more young ninjas to train them as early as possible. We have made a decision to take in 3 of you for ANBU. This means your days of being a care-free shinobi are over. You are a full time shinobi, working every single hour around the clock, protecting many lives and always going on missions. You will never see your other team members again, so now is your last chance to get one final glimpse of your comrades," Tsunade spoke clearly. _

_Tenten tried to glimpse at Neji, but couldn't. He was all the way on the opposite side of the office. The girls were on the right, the guys were on the left – the men obviously outnumbering the women. _

_Tsunade continued, "We have already let the selected ANBU recruits' parents know that they may never see you again. All the parents I spoke with were very proud to have raised an ANBU member. As soon as I call out your name, please step forward. An ANBU member will immediately take you away for a formal training session." _

_There was complete tension in the Hokage's office at this moment. Everyone seemed to be holding their breaths. _

_"Aburame Shino," came the first name. _

_Shino stepped forward. An ANBU member appeared in a puff of smoke in an instant. In another instant, there was another puff of smoke, and both the ANBU and Shino disappeared. _

So that was the last time seeing Shino, _thought Tenten. She never really cared much for Shino since they never interacted with each other. _

_"Nara Shikamaru," came the second name. _

_Shikamaru stepped forward. Tenten looked at Ino, who was standing right next to her. Ino's eyes teared up but she tactfully kept them from dripping out of her eyes. Many knew Ino had feelings for the Nara, but many also predicted Shikamaru just thought of her as a friend. If he had feelings for anyone, many guessed it would be Temari of the Sand Village. _

_The same procedure happened with Shikamaru, an ANBU came and took him in puffs of smoke. _

_The moment Tenten dreaded finally came. The third name came, "Hyuuga Neji." The Hokage glanced at Tenten when she said the Hyuuga's name. _

_Tenten bit her lower lip hard, the tears welled up in her eyes but didn't fall. _

_Neji stepped forward. Tenten wanted to yell at him to stay by her side. But just like that, the love of her life disappeared in a puff of smoke. He didn't even give her one last look. As soon as he left her, she let the tears leak out of her eyes. She quickly wiped them away. _

_She never had a chance to tell him how she felt. Her heart felt like it had ripped into two. She now understood Sakura's pain when Sasuke had left her side. _

_Sakura laid her hand on Tenten's shoulder and whispered, "It's ok. Now we have something in common." _

_But even the sweet words of the pink haired medical ninja couldn't console Tenten – Hyuuga Neji, the love of her life, was never to be seen again. _

_END OF FLASHBACK _

Tenten had the same flashback every night about this early in the morning. She would get in the same position and have the exact same memory. Like every other night, she would get out of bed this early in the morning, get changed into her soft pink oriental shirt and black capris, tie her hair up into two buns, and walk over to the bar – the place where she got drunk every single morning. She would usually fall asleep in the bar after getting drunk, wake up at around 7 AM and walk to the training grounds where she would train with Gai and Lee – tired and weak, which of course always worried Gai and Lee.

She got changed and tied her hair up and slowly walked to the bar.

"Where are you going, Tenten?" her mom would yell at her every morning when she heard Tenten's bedroom door open.

"I'M GOING TO TRAIN, MOM!" Tenten would yell loudly. _Why does that woman even bother asking, she knows what the answer is the same every day,_ Tenten thought.

She slammed the door to her house shut and trudged over to the bar, not being able to forget the horrible memory of the Hyuuga.

---

As soon as she reached the bar, she sat down in her usual seat where the bartender – who was a scraggly looking man looking around the age of 50 – would ask her, "The usual, Miss?"

Tenten nodded and waited for her drink. The bar was almost completely empty except for a doggish looking man around the age of 40 sitting a few tables away from her.

He eyed Tenten and watched her as she chugged down several cups of strong sake. After about 20 – yes 20 – cups of sake, when he was sure Tenten was thoroughly drunk, he watched her fall asleep. He had been examining her for a few months now and her drinking routine.

---

When Tenten woke up, she found herself in a man's arms. She was also no longer in the bar, she was surrounded by tall trees. She couldn't recognize where she was or who was holding her.

She heard a man's voice speak to her, "Sleeping Beauty finally woke up."

She blinked a few times and breathed, "Neji…?"

There was a small pause and he spoke again, "I don't know who this Neji guy you're talking about is, but I could be your prince charming."

Tenten spun around and recognized the man who was holding her as the man from the bar. She screamed and tried to break free from the man's grip. As hard as she tried, she couldn't, she was way too fatigued from all the drinking she did a few hours ago.

Her shrill scream was muffled by the man's lips that were now engulfed around hers. He was now on top of the poor kunoichi and his hands were reaching toward her chest area.

Tenten's eyes widened as she realized what was happening. She wasn't strong enough get this man off her, but she could at least keep her shirt on. She held firmly onto the fabric of her top and refused to let this man strip her of her dignity.

---

Meanwhile, at the ANBU headquarters…

"Looks like someone's in need of a little assistance," an 18-year-old Shikamaru muttered while looking at a computer screen of all the activities going on in Konoha at this time. The three chosen shinobis from Konoha were now in charge of monitoring day to day activities in the whole village of Konoha. They would usually take turns monitoring the computer and going out to save the day.

Shino looked over Shikamaru's shoulder, "What is it _this _time?"

"A girl being sexually assaulted," Shikamaru said in a disgusted tone.

Neji was leaning lazily on a wall in the corner of the room, arms crossed. He had gone on so many hazardous missions, this incident seemed extremely minor to him. Neji played a slightly different role compared to Shikamaru's and Shino's. He was more advanced and went on missions outside of the village of Konoha if he was needed. He was considered the highest out of the three of them for he had several advantages – he was an absolute prodigy in his clan, he was a Jonin when accepted into ANBU while Shikamaru and Shino were still Chuunin, and the most important reason…he had rejected all his bonds with comrades while he was young. His parents were both dead, and he learned to become hard and emotionless even before he reached the Genin level. Shikamaru and Shino both had loving parents and bonds with a few of their teammates. It took them much longer to release their bonds a bit, but even now, they hadn't completely forgotten their comrades of Konoha. Neji was the one and only that was completely void of any emotion. He knew he didn't and never will need emotions, they were just a sign of weakness.

"Neji, you should take this mission," Shikamaru informed.

"I only do important missions," the Hyuuga, dressed in black ANBU robes, said arrogantly.

"But this mission suits you perfectly," the Nara insisted. There was no response from Neji indicating he was refusing to do it.

Shikamaru added, "Considering the victim is," there was a pause for effect, "Tenten…"

Neji's brow furrowed just slightly. So slightly Shino didn't catch it, but Shikamaru's sharp eyes did, and he grinned knowing that Neji was disturbed by the situation.

Shino and Shikamaru were two smart men and knew without even having to ask Neji that he'd had a childhood crush on Tenten for a long time now. After he had become an ANBU member, those feelings were almost completely drained away. As smart as Shino and Shikamaru were, they weren't sure if Neji had completely given up his feelings for Tenten. Assigning Neji this mission would determine the answer to that.

"Fine," Neji grunted, standing upright and heading for the exit to ANBU.

That was a clear indicator that he hadn't given up on his bond with Tenten.

The Nara grinned as Neji put on his white ANBU mask decorated with orange dots on the forehead and purple and blue lines on the bottom half of his face. His mask was pretty unique in terms of design, not many other ANBU recruits wore a mask with that type of pattern, only high status members like the Hyuuga got that mask.

Hyuuga Neji - prodigy of his clan, dead parents, almost no bonds, never shows emotion, Jonin by 15, ANBU by 16, many bloodline limits, admired by many. He had it all in terms of becoming a great shinobi.

Tenten - average kunoichi, loving parents, many bonds, full of emotion and spunk, not yet a Jonin by 18, no bloodline limits, admired by no one.

Their differences were so great...and yet a shinobi of that great status would fall for a kunoichi of that below-average status.

Before Neji walked out the long hallway leading to the exit of ANBU headquarters, without turning around even once to face Shikamaru, he commented icily, "Don't give me that look, Nara."

Shikamaru wiped the grin off his face and thought to himself, _how can he always do that?_

---

Tenten was now fighting for dear life, she couldn't think of any time in her life worse than now. She tried to scream again but the pervert would just muffle her voice in yet another cold and disgusting kiss. The man was still trying to pull the kunoichi's oriental silk shirt off, but luckily Tenten still had barely enough energy to fight this sexual assault. Although she had to admit, she didn't know how much longer she could hold him off from digging deeper into her body.

Once those cold dry lips were released from hers, Tenten felt the man's heavy bodyweight lifted off of her own. Her eyes were shut tight, not wanting to know what might have been coming up next. This was a scar in her life that would never be erased, much like the day Hyuuga Neji left her – only about a thousand times less painful than when her teammate left her side.

Not even a thousand times less painful, you might as well make it 500,000 times less painful. The day when Neji was removed from her life of confusion, her already broken life went even further downhill. She stopped training hard, she didn't eat, she didn't sleep, she drank heavy amounts of sake every morning. Her parents would ask her to sit down and eat a proper dinner once in a while, but she would always give them the same old excuse, 'I'm meeting Lee and Gai Sensei at Ichiraku's Ramen Bar tonight.'

She couldn't even begin to explain the large chunk of her life she had wasted since Neji left. She didn't have any motivation whatsoever, she had lost her sense of wanting to live. There was nothing to look forward to when the sun rose every morning. There was no excitement in training with Team Gai knowing she wasn't going to see those gorgeous ivory eyes of his. She would only see those large circular eyes of Gai Sensei and Lee's.

Tenten was literally living her life as if she was dead these past two years. Nothing mattered anymore. She punched a few tree stumps with Gai and Lee, went to bed, couldn't fall asleep, thought of Neji, got herself drunk, and woke up to punch more tree stumps in the morning. All these past 2 years, completely wasted.

Tenten didn't even care that she had just been sexually assaulted, that was absolutely nothing compared to the scar Neji engraved in her heart.

Tenten woke up to find herself in another man's arms. She blinked a few times to get the blur out of her eyes. It was now getting dark and there was a strong drizzle of rain coming from the gray sky. She recognized the male carrying her as an ANBU member. She assumed this man took care of the pervert that had just been lying on top of her moments ago.

Her body was unusually sore, she felt very bruised up. Then again that probably wasn't uncommon, I mean how long had that heavy man been oppressing her body? She wouldn't be surprised if the doctor diagnosed her with a crushed rib cage, she could barely breathe under that man's bodyweight.

The ANBU was probably carrying her to the Konoha Hospital. At least there, her comrade Sakura could heal her. And at the same time they could have a much-needed chat. Tenten couldn't remember the last time she talked to any of her comrades other than Lee and Gai Sensei. The last time was probably when the Konoha 11 were gathered in the Hokage's office that Sakura told her they now had something in common.

"Arigato…" Tenten mumbled, though she wasn't sure why she was talking to an ANBU, they didn't usually talk to normal villagers anyway.

The ANBU just nodded, an expected response.

Something quickly caught Tenten's eye, behind the colorful ANBU mask was long silky onyx hair tied in a loose ponytail. It made her think of Neji, she remembered how he would always tie it loosely at the end into a ponytail when going on a mission.

She mumbled to herself sadly, "Neji's was exactly like that…"

Tears welled up in her eyes thinking of Neji, she tried consoling herself by thinking of her memories of the Hyuuga. She told herself that at least she got to spend all those years with him before he became an ANBU.

"Kunoichis shouldn't cry so easily," came a deep male voice from behind the mask of the ANBU carrying her.

Tenten swore she recognized it to be Neji's. She suddenly felt so stupid. An ANBU with long onyx hair that told her not to cry. How could she not recognize this to be the one she loved earlier? Was she too dazed from all the drinking she had done?

She reached for the mask of the ANBU and took it off. Surprisingly the ANBU didn't stop her. Once she slid the mask off, the tears fell out of her eyes. The same kinds of tears she cried after Neji disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Neji kept walking, trying to ignore the river of tears flowing out of Tenten's eyes. He avoided eye contact with her. After all, he had already broken two rules of ANBU by letting Tenten take off his mask and speaking to her. He was not going to disgrace the whole ANBU cooperation any further.

Tenten didn't know how to react. Her voice trembled as she tried to speak with her former teammate, "Why did you leave us?"

There was no response from the arrogant man.

Tenten continued to speak through her tears, "Why didn't you reject the offer?"

Neji again didn't speak back to her. The man didn't even look down to meet her eyes.

A sudden surge of anger went through the kunoichi's body. She unexpectedly yelled at him, "Team Gai isn't the same at all anymore! We train lifelessly everyday! Even Gai Sensei and Lee barely smile! Do you know how much pain you've caused us?!"

Tenten noticed the slight twitch movement the Hyuuga's mouth made, indicating he was actually listening to her. But he still didn't respond.

Tenten's eyes began to well up with tears again as she swallowed down her anger in a large gulp. Her voice softened and began to tremble again, "Do you know how much pain you've caused...me?" The kunoichi asked this final question.

Despite how hard the persistent kunoichi tried to make eye contact with her, the cocky Hyuuga refused her that one small satisfaction. Despite her yearning to hear his voice just one last time, he deprived her of that priveledge also.

The weapon specialist had a hurt expression on her face. She whispered, "Don't you...even care?"

Seeing that the Hyuuga wouldn't respond to any of her remarks, she gave up and wriggled out of his grip. She slipped out of his arms in an instant and landed on her feet, if not only for a moment, before collapsing on her knees. Her body felt limp and powerless, she had no control over any part of her body, just her mind, her mouth, and the continuous tears that flowed out of her eyes.

The Hyuuga emotionlessly stepped forward and reached in her direction to pick her up again. The kunoichi refused and rolled a bit in the opposite direction.

She yelled at him, "Don't touch me!"

Neji blankly responded, "It's my job to bring you to the hospital."

She refused again, "I can go there myself!"

He scowled, "You're in no condition to do that. That man drained you of nearly all your chakra...not that you had much. Most of it was contaminated with alcohol."

Tenten shot him another hurt look, "Since when did _you _care about me?"

Neji's scowl grew deeper, showing his clear disapproval of her misbehavior.

"You never thought about me...or Team Gai for that matter! You could only think about yourself gaining power while the rest of us actually tried to look out for each other!" Tenten raised her voice.

She looked at the ground and said in a softer tone, "We all cared about you…and you left us…"

Neji furrowed his brow, "It was expected that I would become an ANBU. It was your blindness that led you to disappointment."

Tenten didn't know how to respond. His reasoning always had a point. It was true, even in the Hokage's office that day, she knew Neji was going to be ANBU. Everyone in the Konoha 11 knew the Hyuuga was best suited for the position in the whole group. Many also knew Shikamaru was the second best suited, with his amazing strategic ability. Geniuses like those two would inevitably have futures such as the situation they are in now. Shino was just chosen because they needed a third person and he was the most calm-headed and he was strong. This made an easy to train shinobi.

Tenten took a good look at this ANBU. Under his high-status black stealthy ANBU uniform was the same heartless, arrogant man she had known since she was a Genin. The same Hyuuga she had fought with side by side for years. The same prodigy she used to be teammates with. The same Neji...that she was still in love with.

She was not about to show the Hyuuga that she had grown weaker in the years that he left her.

The kunoichi said in a sharp voice, "I don't need your help."

Neji took a deep sigh, not exactly sure of what he was supposed to do. From the ANBU headquarters however, Shino and Shikamaru were thoroughly amused at watching the Hyuuga struggle with his love life. Shino's eyes were clued to the monitor while Shikamaru smirked, trying to guess at how the Hyuuga would take care of this situation. For a moment, Shino and Shikamaru were not ANBU, they were cheerful, mischievous Genin again.

Neji took a look at his situation for a moment and finally seemed to hesitantly give in. He knelt down by the girl's side and reached out for Tenten's shirt.

She pulled back quickly, yelling loudly, "What are you doing?"

Neji snapped back at her in a calmer manner, "Since you won't let me take you to the hospital, I'm gonna…"

Tenten cut the Hyuuga off, "Since when did you become a medical ninja?"

The arrogant ANBU was taken aback by this rather abrupt question. In his small moment of shock, he blankly stared at the bruised up kunoichi and didn't give her an answer.

Tenten didn't really want to know the answer to the question she just asked. She feared a possible response coming out of his mouth. She thought she had a hunch of where he had learned to heal wounds.

Neji's face gave a small twitch before saying hesitantly, "ANBU had a required medical course."

The kunoichi furrowed her brow and looked hurt at Neji's words. She knew he was lying. Over the years she had spent with him, she could easily read his emotions. "How could you just lie to me like that? You think I can't tell, after all these years, when you're telling the truth and when you're not?"

The Hyuuga was not expecting that she could read his body language so well. He, again, did not respond. He instead looked away.

Tenten's eyes watered up. Did this mean what she thought it meant? Had he learned how to heal wounds and bruises from her pink haired friend? There was no other way. They hadn't learned any medical knowledge when they were in the Academy before they were Genin, only basic attack and defense techniques.

Tenten tried to calm herself down. She tried to console herself by repeating pointlessly in her mind, _she was just teaching him. There was no special meaning to it. There was no special emotion behind it._

But as much as she tried to get rid of the thought, she couldn't. The information that she pieced together was all to fact-like. Her head spun with mixed emotions. Emotions of sadness and bitter jealousy. She knew that Sakura, for a few brief days, had confessed to Tenten that she missed her Uchiha and sometimes she felt all too comfortable around Neji – after all, they're background and character were nearly identical. Tenten couldn't dream of showing anger to this innocent girl, but she was always uncomfortable whenever Sakura and Neji were within a few yards from each other.

Neji had not told Tenten the truth in the first place, in fear she might misunderstand like she was doing now. Tenten always got the impression that Neji might've had some hidden feeling for the medical ninja since he never showed any sort of emotion towards Tenten. Plus the girl found every reason to like Sakura – she was beautiful, smart, and strong.

Tenten's eyes welled up and she found herself looking away from Neji. She forced a small smile and said softly, "So…you've been seeing Sakura?"

The Hyuuga was not one to lie. He had been seeing the Haruno girl for many weeks now for medical training. After all, he was one of the top ANBU members. To not be able to perform some simple healing techniques at his level was something to laugh at. And he also must admit, Sakura did also confess to him the same thing she had confessed to Sakura. That Neji did remind her a lot of Sasuke. That she might eventually start having some feelings for Neji if she spent too much time with him.

But Sakura was not one to play around with men. She knew all too well how much Tenten needed Neji, as she needed Sasuke. She had clearly told Neji that she would only see him for a month to teach him everything she knew, and then she would stop seeing him to resist any form of temptation.

Tenten, at the moment, was misunderstanding the current situation and coming to conclusions too soon.

"I've only been seeing her for medical training. She will only teach me for one more week," the Hyuuga explained briefly. He now understood that Tenten got the complete wrong impression.

"I don't like her," he added seriously.

Tenten took a deep breath. She wasn't sure whether she was supposed to believe this statement or not.

Neji, choosing to ignore her lack of trust, continued with his duties and reached out for her shirt again. Tenten, struck with confusion, let the Hyuuga take off her shirt quickly, leaving her top almost naked. The Hyuuga's brow furrowed as he looked at Tenten's upper body. It was covered with deep cuts and large bruises. The man did a hasty job extracting chakra from Tenten's body.

Neji laid his hand on Tenten's upper abdomen. A flash of heat and pain surged throughout Tenten's body. The kunoichi screamed loudly while the Hyuuga just kept doing his job.

**A/N: Well, it's the start of another NejiTen :D Yay! Of course this story is going to be continued. Sorry for the sucky ending to this chapter…hehe. Please review! I'd appreciate it a lot! Also, if any of you who are reading this like SasuSaku, I am starting another fanfiction later for a request I got. It's gonna be AU SasuSaku. So I am going to be dealing with 2 fanfictions at the same time. You can read both if you want, or if you don't like SasuSaku, you can just read this one :D Pretty straight forward. Love you guys! Thanks, in advance, to those who review! **


	2. Jealousy

_**A/N: **__Thanks to those of you who read chapter 1, here's chapter 2! And regarding the other story I started (Morning) – it was supposed to be mainly SasuSaku…but it is turning out to be more NejiTen, yikes! But you can never get enough NejiTen :D Ok, back to chapter 2, enjoy!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fanfic._

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**Possession**

By nejiandtentenfan

Chapter 2: Jealousy

Tenten could barely hear herself thinking of how much this was hurting. The searing pain was causing her to sweat profusely; she didn't know how much longer she could take this. Her eyes were shut tight, but through her eyelids, she sensed the blinding brightness that surrounded her.

_What is that Hyuuga doing? _Tenten thought for a brief second before shrieking in pain again.

A few moments after her cry was released from her mouth and into the dark drizzling sky, the hurting ceased. The pain that had felt like flames licking her skin was no longer existent. The kunoichi lying on the damp grass would have opened her eyes to see what her surroundings were like at this moment. But, somehow she was too weak to even open the eyelids on her tear-streaked face. She gave a weak moan before rolling over onto the left side of her body that felt burned rather than healed. She unconsciously tucked her two callused hands under her head and fell asleep out of all the drastic events that had occurred to her today. First she was sexually assaulted, then she had her argument with Neji, and now when he told her he would heal her, this is what she gets? She was sure this couldn't have been a treatment; all that pain was so unreal. She yawned quietly without another thought of the world around her. And for once, when she dozed off into her own dream land, she didn't have the same horrible flashback of Neji getting accepted into ANBU. Instead, she dreamed of the old Team Gai training happily like in the old days.

Neji had watched the kunoichi fall asleep in front of him before he reached out and attempted yet again to pick her up and bring her to the hospital that wouldn't take too long to reach if he walked at a brisk pace. His hands barely touched her white skin when he felt a surge of pain make its way through his body too. Instantly, blood came spurting out of his mouth as he choked on his own blood. He could not understand what was happening, but it probably had something to do with the fact that he had used way too much chakra trying to heal Tenten.

Neji inhaled sharply as icy air came rushing down his throat that felt like Tenten had stuck one of her kunais down. He clutched his stomach and coughed out blood once more as he fell to the ground next to Tenten, his long hair flailing down with him. Despite the sharpness of his eyes, the world around him was spinning in a blur and he was forced to close his eyes to stop the dizziness. The man was soon unconscious and he lay next to the brown haired woman that had once loved him. The two members of Team Gai – well, one of them being a former member – laid there together on the damp grass in the light drizzle, eyes closed and bodies limp.

----------

Shikamaru cursed as he blinked a few times before accepting what he saw on the computer monitor in ANBU headquarters. Shino also looked a bit shocked.

"What did that blasted Hyuuga do?" Shikamaru said, his voice rising.

Shino, being his usual subtle self said calmly, "It's nothing we can't solve."

Shikamaru scowled, surveying the situation, "I don't know about that…it looks pretty bad."

Shino replied impassively, "You take this mission."

Shikamaru nodded, brow still furrowed at the monitor screen. The Nara quickly fixed up his black ANBU robes and put on his mask in the shape of a cat's face. He headed for the exit.

"I expect you'll be back before midnight," Shikamaru heard Shino's voice speak behind him in his same monotone.

Shikamaru smirked without even turning around, "That's giving me 9 whole hours," there was a slight pause. "This won't even take half that amount of time," he said not hesitantly, but his voice wasn't brimming with his usual confidence. The truth was he didn't know how long this was going to take. He had no idea what kind of technique Neji had used on Tenten. He recalled the blinding light on the computer screen, and in the next flash, Tenten's eyes were shut and she appeared lifeless on the ground – while in the next moment, the Hyuuga was pretty much in the same position. Shikamaru had heard Tenten's shriek and saw the blood spurt out of the Hyuuga's mouth. They now were both hurt and it had all happened so quickly.

Right before Shikamaru disappeared from ANBU headquarters, he heard Shino's last words to him, "Then I'll expect you back around 7."

Shikamaru smirked but did not make a remark. Instead, he just headed out the long hallway to the exit, looking like the professional ANBU he was. But even with his excellent IQ, he had not the slightest idea what the Hyuuga had done.

----------

Tenten was, at this time, completely unconscious. But the Hyuuga could still distantly hear the pounding of his aching head. If his limbs could talk, his body would be shrieking in pain right now.

Somewhere, through the soft patter of the drizzling rain, the Hyuuga could hear what sounded like distant footsteps. With his eyes still shut tight, he could sense the footsteps getting closer and closer. His body being unable to move was a total loss for him. Was this an enemy? As much as Neji wanted to spring up and get into a proper defensive stance, he found himself unable to even open his eyelids.

When he felt the footsteps come to a halt, he got the feeling the person was standing right in front of them. He heard a familiar clicking of the tongue in an irritated fashion.

"How troublesome," he heard the unmistaken voice of Nara Shikamaru.

_Shikamaru? _Neji thought, but the words didn't come out of his mouth. His vocal chords didn't seem to be working properly, probably due to his low amount of chakra.

He heard another curse from the Nara before he felt a warm hand placed on his forehead – right over his cursed mark. The warmth didn't feel natural though - like a warm hand that had just been around a hot mug of tea – but instead that was the warmth he recognized as chakra being released from the pores of the Nara's palms. Ino had learned from Sakura some basic chakra control techniques and was just extremely enthusiastic to offer to teach Shikamaru while Sakura taught Neji.

"_It'll be just like a double date!" Ino had exclaimed._

Sakura hadn't liked the sound of that and simply told her that wasn't a very accurate analogy since she wasn't exactly in _love _with Neji. And although she didn't say it out loud, she knew Shikamaru only had feelings for Temari of the Sand village. So 'double date' was totally inaccurate when describing their teaching the ANBU members. No one had taught Shino because apparently he already knew basic healing techniques. He had claimed quite calmly that he always had to heal his wounded insects, which made Sakura and Ino flinch at the idea of inserting chakra into thousands of gross bugs.

Some color came back into Neji's unnaturally pale skin tone, so he didn't look so wan. The Hyuuga's eyelids fluttered open as he inhaled sharply. With chakra, the Hyuuga could pretty much do anything and everything, but without chakra he was powerless – like everyone else. Neji breathed deeply, in and out. When he was low on chakra, his oxygen starved lungs seemed to not even have enough energy to take in proper air.

After catching his breath his eyes immediately turned to Tenten urgently.

"Is she ok?" he said a little too quickly, a little too urgently, a little too much concern in his voice.

The Nara cracked a grin behind his mask, which Neji could see with his Byakugan, "Is someone a little worried about a certain female?"

The Hyuuga scowled and was clearly in a bad mood from this remark. He wiped all the concern professionally off his face and said in monotone, "It's my job to protect people."

Shikamaru's grin widened under his mask but he didn't say anything.

"And don't give me that look," Neji said menacingly again.

Shikamaru's grin was, again, wiped from his face. _He caught me again, _the Nara thought, _at least his Byakugan is in his eyes and not his ears. _Shikamaru couldn't even imagine what havoc Neji would be capable of causing if he could hear other people's thoughts. Oh the gossip he would be able to spread. Oh the blackmail he would've had.

Neji went to pick Tenten up again but stopped as soon as he lifted her a few inches from the ground. He almost dropped her, if it had not been for Shikamaru who caught her for him. Neji kneeled on his left knee and coughed out more red liquid. He inhaled and exhaled desperately again. Shikamaru sighed in irritation and, with his free hand, offered his hand to the Hyuuga.

At first Neji wouldn't take it. He was a Hyuuga – meaning he was too arrogant to take help from anyone, including a fellow ANBU member.

An image of Tenten's tear-streaked face flashed through his mind. Her voice echoed inside his head. Her voice was filled with pain, "Gai Sensei, Lee, and I all cared for you. But you didn't care about us at all and left us!" Her face was clearly disapproving of his arrogance.

Neji sighed, put on his rightful ANBU mask again, and took Shikamaru's hand, which hoisted the Hyuuga to his feet. Letting someone help him was bad enough, but Neji was definitely not about to give any form of appreciation – not even a simple "thanks." He wrapped one arm around the Nara's shoulder and the three of them started off slowly to the Hokage's office. Tenten was in Shikamaru's arms while Neji was limping and being supported by the Nara. The weight was all being pressed down on Shikamaru, but he didn't mind. The Hokage's was not far from where they were standing. And although it was slow, they were making progress – advancing to the Hokage's step by step.

----------

"So if we place a bet in that pool, we'll surely earn enough money to…" Tsunade's voice was cut of while talking to her apprentice, Shizune, by a loud banging on her office door.

"Who the devil could that…" and her voice was once again cut off as two ANBU members busted in without waiting for Tsunade's approval. One ANBU was being supported by the other and there was a girl that Tsunade recognized in the standing ANBU's arms.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, but not in question or concern, but it amusement. She recognized these two ANBU anywhere.

"Long time no see…" she smirked for effect, "Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji." She nodded to each of the men in ANBU uniforms as she said their names. She recognized Neji's long dark hair and Shikamaru's spiked ponytail anywhere. As a matter of fact, pretty much all the shinobi of Konoha had unique hair that couldn't be concealed under a mask. For example, Uzumaki Naruto with his blonde spiky hair, Shino with his afro, Ino with her smooth blonde hair always tied into a high ponytail or bun with her bangs parted to one side, etcetera. The only ones she might've mixed up were Rock Lee and Maito Gai with their almost identical hair styles.

Neji and Shikamaru would've bowed in respect to the Hokage – the only person Neji could bear giving a little bit of honor to other than Hyuuga Hiashi, who he _had _to respect – but Neji was pretty much crippled at the moment and Shikamaru had too much bodyweight on him. The two men just nodded their heads at her in recognition of her presence. But she was too caught up in the scene they formed to notice their greetings to her.

"What happened to Tenten…and Neji?" Tsunade asked, apparently directing her question to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru sighed, not knowing exactly how to explain the situation, "Well first Tenten got drunk in a bar and then later a man attempted to rape her."

Tsunade's eyes lingered to Tenten's inert body. She couldn't help but interrupt, "Shikamaru…is she…"

Shikamaru shook his head, knowing where this was going, "No, she's alive…I think."

Shaking that thought off he continued, "Then Neji was sent by ANBU to assist her. He quickly killed that man without thinking and performed some kind of technique that was supposedly supposed to heal Tenten…but uh…from what I saw, a bright light erupted and in the next moment Tenten was on the ground unconscious and Neji was on the ground next to her sputtering out blood. So I went to help them and here we are now."

Tsunade crumpled her brow deeply and scrunched her nose a bit, looking at the handicapped Hyuuga, "Who did you learn this technique from, Neji?"

"Haruno Sakura," Neji replied professionally as a proper response from an ANBU.

Tsunade cracked a grin at hearing her apprentice's name, "What did she tell you this technique would do?"

"She told me by doing this technique; I could insert chakra from my body into the body of another person of almost no chakra. As a side benefit, that person's body condition will be almost flawless – so I chose this technique so I could restore her chakra level as well as heal her bruises and cuts," Neji explained in monotone, not even blinking once.

Tsunade smirked again, "Did she happen to also tell you what would happen to your body?"

Neji scowled, but only for a brief moment before regaining his facial composure. He softly cleared his throat a bit, "Hai."

Tsunade frowned. She knew very well that when someone used this technique, their body would become very weak and some internal organs may even be damaged. Most medical nin only use this technique in desperate measures. The Hokage had a hunch Neji might've still had some hidden feelings for this kunoichi to have gone to such extreme measures just to restore her chakra level. It was not as though the situation had been dire.

The Hokage nodded, the frown still plastered on her face, "Shikamaru, please take Tenten to a room at the hospital."

Shikamaru nodded before releasing his support on Neji, who had to lean on the wall to keep himself from collapsing yet again. Tsunade had made it so that Neji was alone in her office for a definite reason. She couldn't resist but find out more about his feelings for Tenten – typical impulse from this woman.

She raised an eyebrow – trying to do so subtly but failing, "Neji, sit down." She smiled and extended her hand out to the seat in front of her desk.

She could hear the Hyuuga inhale softly behind that ANBU mask of his before giving himself a small push away from the wall and limping over to the seat the Hokage had offered him.

Once the Hyuuga got himself settled, Tsunade immediately threw him a grin that he couldn't make out, what was she about to do to him? Her grin was sly as if she was going to interrogate him, "Take your mask off Neji, it's been so long since I've seen you around Konoha."

Neji didn't take off his mask willingly, but only because it was the Hokage's orders. Tsunade's grin grew wider. "You're starting to look just like Hiashi," she couldn't help but verbally remark.

_Oh lovely, _Neji thought sarcastically. He wasn't exactly crazy about the idea that he was one day probably going to look just like Hiashi since he was the reason that his father died, but at the same time, looking like Hiashi would be looking like his own deceased father – Hyuuga Hizashi. Instead of vocalizing his disapproval, he simply nodded with an impassive face.

Somehow this made Tsunade chuckle, "You still act the same as when you were a Jonin." As strong as Tsunade was, thinking of the wonderful past made her want to tear up, but she wouldn't let the liquid in her eyes get even that far. She hated crying, and she would not let herself do it now. How she missed Shikamaru, Shino, and Neji being in the village. Every shinobi added to the flourishing character in the village of Konoha. Good thing she only lost 3 shinobi to ANBU, anymore than that would've kept her incredibly lonely. She loved the youth of Konoha; their generation was probably the strongest she had seen so far. She loved them more than the older generation, if she were to lose more shinobi to ANBU she wouldn't know how to cope.

Her attention turned back to the man that was still watching her fantasize to herself. She had a somewhat nostalgic look on her face as she stared off into space. She cleared her throat when she looked back at Neji's ivory pupils, "Sorry, I just had something on my mind."

Again, a simple nod came from the Hyuuga. Nothing more.

She remembered what she wanted to say, "You know…Tenten has been pretty depressed since you left."

She saw his jaw tense up when she said the weapon user's name – which gave her incredible amusement.

"Oh," Neji uttered dryly.

"She's been drinking nonstop," the Hokage continued.

"I know," Neji recalled using Byakugan to see into her alcohol infested chakra system. It was no surprise that she had taken in drinking into her lifestyle so well considering two main factors – one, she had an incredibly high tolerance level for alcohol, and two, her role model happened to be someone named Hokage-sama – who was notorious for her horrible drinking habits.

"Despite her depressed state…it is my belief that she has maintained her old childhood crush…" Tsunade searched Neji's face for any sort of reaction. None. Did he not understand that she was talking about him? She furrowed her brow, "Meaning _you_."

Neji's blank face finally broke into a smirk. He seemed amused, "How is this information of importance to me?"

Tsunade found herself searching for any words to put out, but she couldn't. Her lips were moving pointlessly like a goldfish as she tried to find a good remark. Useless.

Neji continued, voice full of his confident arrogance, "Hokage-sama, pardon me, but I think that _you, _of all people, should know that emotions are a weakness."

It was now Tsunade's turn to feel confident. She faked a smirk, "You must still have maintained _your _childhood crush to have used such a desperate technique in that situation."

Neji furrowed his brow, confidence not as strong. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said icily, his jaw visibly tensed up.

Tsunade knew she could not get anything else out of him even if she continued to interrogate him. She smirked and simply told him, "Fine. If you're going to play dumb, then you might as well go and check into the hospital. Shi…"

There was an ANBU at the door. She smiled and continued, "Shikamaru will escort you. The resting process that follows this technique is 3 days."

"Three days?" Neji's voice was slightly raised.

"That is correct," Tsunade said, acting professional. She crossed her hands on her desk and straightened her back, "Is there a problem?"

The corners of the Hyuuga's mouth tightened, "What about ANBU?"

"What _about _ANBU?" Tsunade snapped back.

"They will surely need me for missions these next few days?" Neji reasoned.

"They can find a replacement," Tsunade said this in an 'end of discussion' tone. "Now go," with one flick of her hand, she indicated Neji should shoo now.

Feeling defeated – which he hadn't felt in years – he shot the Hokage one last glare before standing up, slipping his mask on, and limping to Shikamaru's side. Shikamaru was quite surprised at the Hokage's ability to make Neji back down. The Hyuuga's arrogance always made sure that he won any battle – physically or verbally. He hated losing to anyone, but apparently Tsunade was able to declare a victory for herself. Even Shikamaru, who had worked with him in ANBU for these past couple years, didn't dare start an argument with him.

Secretly, Shikamaru had been back from carrying Tenten to her room for a while now and had actually listened in on their conversation. He was surprised Neji had not sensed his presence earlier. He always caught Shikamaru even when he stopped breathing and was on his tip toes. The Nara suspected he would make a pretty good mother with those eyes in the back of his head.

Once they were out a good distance from the Hokage's office, Neji said icily, "You were eavesdropping."

Shikamaru sighed, "Why didn't you stop me?"

Neji paused for a while, still limping by Shikamaru's side, "What we were talking about wasn't important anyway."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow behind his mask, "So you _do _like Tenten?"

"When did I ever say that?" the Hyuuga said, trying to mean 'no.'

As much as the Nara knew Neji was trying to say he didn't like Tenten, he had the impulse to push him, "So you _don't _like Tenten?"

"Nara, I find your questioning very pointless," was all the Hyuuga said before limping on.

Shikamaru grinned beneath his mask. He knew it was rare for the Hyuuga to tell a lie purposely, he only went around the question.

"Give me that look again and I swear I'll…" the Hyuuga's voice trailed off because pretty soon they were at the hospital's entrance.

"Let's check in first - then you can cuss at me all you want," Shikamaru said in a somewhat sarcastic tone.

----------

"What happened?" came Haruno Sakura's sympathetic voice and concerned face. She was talking to Tenten, who had woken up in her hospital room. She was sitting upright in her bed and Sakura was sitting in a chair next to her bed. The medical nin hadn't changed much. Her face was still as innocent as ever, and her voice did not get any higher or lower over the years, but she was definitely a person of more confidence than before. When she was younger, she had pretty shattered self-esteem with Naruto and Sasuke on her previous team. But, over the years since Sasuke had left, she molded herself into a real kunoichi and medical nin, putting aside her mindless crush on the Uchiha. This made Tenten and Sakura different. Sakura worked harder to make sure if she ever saw Sasuke again, she would do whatever it took to drag him back to Konoha – including knock him unconscious and literally drag him back. Tenten on the other hand, simply stopped trying without Neji by her side. And once they met again, this was how she presented herself. Weaker and drunk with alcohol. Tenten wasn't sure if she was to be ashamed or just ignore this fact.

"A man tried to get fresh with me and then Neji killed him. Then he used this strange jutsu on me that was supposed to heal me, but I guess I passed out," Tenten explained to the best of her ability using the little information she had. She kept it pretty brief because she didn't feel like going into detail – after all, it had happened so quickly.

Sakura immediately knew what technique she was talking about that she had indeed taught Neji. "I told him to only use it in a dire situation," she murmured to herself.

Tenten ignored the girl thinking to herself. She noticed something that had changed over the years in the Konoha hospital. Previously, the hospital provided everyone with their own individual room – one bed per room. Now…

"Why are there 2 beds in each room now?" Tenten asked Sakura while staring at the empty white cot on her right side, just a few feet away.

"Oh! There have been more injuries lately with ANBU and Jonins because of several attacks from enemy villages. So we decided that instead of extending the hospital, we would simply double the possible intake of patients by adding an extra bed to every room. We didn't have enough money to extend the hospital because Hokage-sama bet…" Sakura silenced herself as she realized she shouldn't be blaming anything on her master, "But uh, never mind that! The important thing is that this was what Konoha chose to do with their hospital!" Sakura's cheerfulness was rather peculiar to Tenten. The brown haired kunoichi didn't know why, but something about Sakura made it seem like she was hiding something. Her voice seemed anxious and somehow nervous. But Tenten couldn't put her finger on it. And suddenly something dawned her and she was horrified.

"So that means I have to share the room with a complete stranger?!" there was urgency in Tenten's raised voice.

Sakura briefly bit her bottom lip and gave Tenten another fake nervous smile, "No…well I mean…I wouldn't call him a _stranger_…"

"_Him_?! I'm sharing the room with a _man_?" this was the start of a panic attack for Tenten. She didn't want to stay in the hospital with a strange man. She had just been sexually assaulted by one of those _men_. Oh the mental images. Now whenever she thought of men she didn't know, she couldn't only envision them as lechers. She'd rather run 30 laps around Konoha with Gai Sensei and Lee – at least she knew they weren't perverted and wouldn't spend the whole day gaping at her body like many other men did.

"Yes, but uh…" Sakura tried to think of words to calm the girl down, but couldn't find any with out giving too much away.

"_Who _am I sharing the room with, Sakura?" Tenten gripped her blankets and was pretty much begging for Sakura to tell her now.

"You…are sharing the room with…" Sakura started hesitantly. But she didn't need to finish. The door to Tenten's room was opened and two ANBUs she clearly recognized were standing at the doorway. One was limping and being supported by the other ANBU.

She undoubtedly knew that the one that was limping was Hyuuga Neji with his long onyx hair, and the one supporting him was her old comrade from Konoha – Nara Shikamaru. She could tell by his hair, which still stayed spiked in a high ponytail – like it has been in since his Genin days.

_Neji_, Tenten mouthed the name with a shocked look on her face. She had been unconscious for most of the Shikamaru's rescue, so she did not understand why the Hyuuga was limping.

"This is the room Hokage-sama assigned you to Neji," the Nara spoke calmly behind his mask. Now Tenten could definitely tell this was Shikamaru, his voice was still as lazy and as laid back as ever. She just wished she could see his new face, how much he had changed, what he had grown into. She mainly had missed Neji over the years, but the thought of losing so many familiar comrades to ANBU made her heart ache with childhood memories.

Tenten kept her cheeks from blushing when she heard Neji was assigned to the same room as her, she couldn't show any sign of embarrassment around these Genin-turned-ANBUs.

Neji gave a simple short grunt before Shikamaru had to support him to the hospital bed next to Tenten's. The Hyuuga lied down on the cot with a sharp exhale, which was a clear indicator to everyone in the room that he was in pain.

"I'll take it from here," Sakura's professional medical nin voice kicked in.

Tenten could suddenly feel her palms start to sweat as Shikamaru left and Sakura started toward Neji's bed. She wanted to tell Shikamaru to stay and use whatever technique he could pull out to heal Neji instead. But no use, she heard the door shut behind him as the ANBU left without glancing back even once.

"What happened to Neji?" Tenten suddenly blurted. She was desperate to not have to watch Sakura heal him. She knew it was wrong to try to stop a medical nin from fulfilling her duties, but something inside of Tenten made her feel uncomfortable…almost _jealous_.

This caught Sakura in surprise. She stopped in her tracks and her confused facial composure turned into a gentle smile.

"Neji-kun inserted chakra from his own body into yours. He almost lost _all _of his chakra, and it left internal damages, so I'm just going to have to he-"

"Is there a bathroom I can use?" the brown haired kunoichi interrupted rather rudely. But Sakura could hear the utter desperation in her voice to get away from Neji at this moment.

Sakura stammered, a bit baffled by her urgency, "H-hai…turn right in this hal-"

"Turn right in this hallway, got it. Arigato Sakura," Tenten said before leaping out of bed and attempting to walk quickly out of the room without looking back. Her right leg was absolutely killing her, she felt like it had been detached – or more likely burned. She restrained herself from showing any sign of pain and did her best to try and not limp.

Neji eyed her right leg as she walked out and watched her body bob up an down at an uneven rate.

Once the door was closed behind the girl, she quickly leaned her back against the closed door and grasped her leg.

She quickly spotted what she had been looking for – or rather _who _she was looking for.

"Shikamaru!" Tenten called out, loud enough for the ANBU - about to turn the corner at the end of the hallway - to turn his head and face Tenten.

She started to limp over to the man. Seeing Tenten was in need of support, Shikamaru quickly darted out to help hold up her fragile body – the way he had (less carefully) done with the arrogant Hyuuga's. The gentle girl looked up and cracked a wide grin when she saw the ANBU mask of Shikamaru.

"Nani?" Shikamaru asked, not in his usual irritated voice – but more in a laid back tone.

"Nothing much…I just didn't want to stay in my roo-" Tenten quickly changed her sentence, "I mean I had to go to the bathroom and then I saw you walking." The girl put on a fake smile.

"Oh…it wasn't because you didn't want to watch Sakura touch Neji?"

Tenten's face gave off a hint of surprise at his comment before simply replying to the man, "How do you know these things?"

"I'm an ANBU. Of course I know little details like these," Shikamaru gave a long sigh, "It's actually quite troublesome."

Tenten gave a giggle, "You haven't changed at all."

----------

"Sakura," Neji breathed out the pink haired kunoichi's name. It was the exact same way Sasuke had said her name the night before he left Konoha. Her heart softened at his voice for a bit but then hardened again.

"Hn?" the girl replied, tracing many cuts on his now-topless chest with careful glowing green hands. The Hyuuga's mask was still off and when she looked into his eyes, she noticed they were lingering somewhere else. His useful bloodline limit was currently activated – Byakugan. He seemed to be looking at the wall – or rather, _through _the wall. What he saw didn't exactly please him. Through the wall he could see Tenten's arm wrapped around Shikamaru's shoulder. She was clearly smiling at him and talking to him, in a way she never smiled at the Hyuuga himself.

"Has Tenten told you about any new crushes she has?" he asked calmy, gaze still staring holes into the wall.

"I…don't think so…why?" Sakura continued to trace more minor cuts after she was finished with the large gashes. Neji just continued to watch Tenten smiling widely and talking in Shikamaru's arms.

"Nevermind," the Hyuuga said, his voice carrying an edge of iciness. "I'll talk to her about it tonight." Within the coldness of his voice was a hint of something Sakura had never heard in his voice before. Something completely new.

Jealousy.

_To Be Continued…_


	3. Longing

_**A/N: **Here is the revised, easier to read version of Chapter 3 that I promised! Hooray!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fanfic._

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**Possession**

By nejiandtentenfan

Chapter 3: Longing

Shikamaru tiresomely absolved a long sigh before glancing at a clock on the white wall of the hospital hallway, _6:30 PM already_.

"Tenten, sorry for the reunion cut short, but I have to go…" the Nara started muttering half to himself, "Shino will mock me for weeks if I arrive at ANBU headquarters too late, and things will just get troublesome…" With these words, Tenten artlessly smiled at the fact that she was one of the few that got to see Shikamaru again.

Her grin grew even wider when she blurted out a remark unexpectedly, "Are you going to visit Ino?"

"Why would I do that?" under the mask of the Nara's, his face stayed impassive as he said these words.

Tenten gave him an 'isn't it so obvious' sort of look, "She misses you. Plus, ever since Sasuke left…I think she might have some fee-"

"Well she can have all the feelings she wants for me, but I don't like her," his tone was rough and Tenten knew he was serious when he said this.

The chocolate haired kunoichi sighed and pressed on lightly, "Ok whatever, everyone knows you and Temari-san are already in a relationship. But Temari is from the Sand Village; please visit your former teammate Ino, who is in _Konoha, _because I know she misses you."

"Fine, I'll see if I can fit a reunion with my old team into my schedule once I get back to ANBU headquarters," Shikamaru concluded with a sigh. There was a trifling blush in the Nara's cheeks, cryptic under the ANBU mask, at the mention of Temari's name. Her remark made him question how many people knew of his hidden relationship with the female Sand-nin. Another sly grin made its way through his features under his mask, "On one condition."

The kunoichi's brow furrowed, "I'm listening." It was a bit of a shock to Tenten – because Shikamaru usually never made these kinds of according conceptions, since they were pretty 'troublesome.'

"Have a reunion with the old Team Gai – Neji included," there was a hint of smirking in his voice. He knew that it would be terribly hard for her to arrange something like this – whether it be because she couldn't bear bringing back the memories, or because she just didn't want to talk to the Hyuuga. Either way, she would have to put up a strong fight within herself to make it happen.

Before biting her lip in debating with herself, she finally half-sighed out the word, "Fine." The word sounded so sweet to the Nara's ear – which appreciated the thought of not having to organize a reunion alone.

"I'll be going now," the Nara steadied Tenten as she tried standing up without his support, before turning his back on her and starting to walk away. The girl normally would've vocalized a farewell, something like 'See you later, then!' but she knew that wasn't a likely possibility. This might have been one of the last times Tenten would ever lay eyes on Shikamaru – the lazy, cloud-envious genius – again in a long time. So instead of propounding words of departure, Tenten gave a small smile – which she knew he would not see behind his back – as the elegant black figure slowly disappeared around the corner, not taking a second glance. The girl shambled back to her room at the slowest rate possible, handicapped by the pain in her leg and the fear of having to face Neji once again. Not longer after she turned the doorknob, she was confronted from a distance.

She was greeted by a familiar icy voice as she leaned on against the open doorframe, "I thought you were going to the bathroom." The girl braced herself to meet the Hyuuga's eyes. She gathered all the courage and wit she had in herself before meeting his pearly white gaze with her own chocolate sharp stare. But all her efforts were liquefied once her eyes were raised. His hollow glare was even more menacing than she had ever revoked it to be when he was Jonin. What had ANBU transformed the Hyuuga into? _More of a shinobi, _Tenten answered her own internal question. _Stupid Byakugan, letting Neji see my every move, _Tenten fumed inside her head, _what do I have to do with him? _The tension in the eternal glaring between Neji and Tenten began eliciting Sakura to only be able to stare with fear. The pink haired nin achingly desired nothing more than to back into a corner and not take part in any of this.

"What business is it of yours?" Tenten said coldly, not breaking her glare.

The Hyuuga just smirked, "Tenten." Just the sound of her name being spoken by this man sent chills run up and down her spine. "I'm an ANBU; don't you think I have the authority to know every little detail there is to know about what goes on in Konoha…" his voice trailed off briefly before coming back sharply, "including the _relationships_?" For a few moments, Tenten was oblivious to the message that he was aggressively implying, before realizing he was suggesting herself and _Shikamaru_!

"_Excuse _me?" she uttered the words sharply; "You should know very well that Shikamaru is with Temari-san of the Sand Village!" Flames of anger were erectly starting to surmount as she realized he was totally misunderstanding the situation.

The Hyuuga kept his voice calm – giving him the advantage of composure over Tenten, "So he's been two-timing I see…"

"What?!" Tenten's voice quickly escalated a level. Her cheeks were bravely hued pink with fury and her shoulders were stiff. "You think just because Shikamaru and I were having a normal conversation with each other means that we're in a _relationship_?!" She spat out her words fiercely, but the Hyuuga didn't lose focus. He was partly amused at seeing how his placid stoicism could cause someone to be so infuriated.

He continued to push her further and further, testing her limits, "I just think it might be something worth investigating." Apparently he had just overstepped the hot-blooded kunoichi's final limit.

"The only relationship you should investigate is the one between you and your precious medical-nin!" she yelled loudly, before starting to walk out the door.

Concerned, Sakura finally spoke up, "Tenten-san, where are you going?"

"TO THE BATHROOM!" Tenten shrieked before slamming the door shut. Tenten let out a long sigh before lamely staggering toward the exit of the hospital. What had happened to her companionable bond with Neji over the years? They had done nothing but haphazardly argue since they reunited. Their relationship had never been on rocky foundations like that before the Hyuuga departed for ANBU. Where had all that sudden anger come from – was it because she got the sense that he abandoned her, or was it because she felt he had a deeper relationship with Sakura than herself? Either way, she had no aiming desire of reentering her hospital room in the next few hours or so.

As Sakura worriedly watched Tenten disappear out of sight, she turned to Neji and half-scolded with concern in her tone, "You shouldn't have pushed her that far." However, the Hyuuga had no interest in responding to the pink haired kunoichi – in fact; he hadn't even been listening to her. The Hyuuga simply stared at the spot Tenten had been hunched over in, unable to rip his eyes off that area. Both Sakura and Neji knew Tenten had no intention of using the restroom whatsoever, but neither of them knew where she was currently presiding.

The words that continually rang inside Neji's head haunted him as he continued to stare at the door, mind spinning with thought, _you and your precious medical-nin_.

* * *

"You just barely made it on time," came the monotone voice of the Aburame at the ANBU headquarters. The irritated sigh of the Nara could be heard before he took off his mask. Shino swiveled around in the chair in front of the computer monitor to face Shikamaru.

The Nara shoved his hands in the pockets of his ANBU robes and started off a bit hesitantly, "Yeah well I ran into a conversation with Tenten and…" his voice stopped for half a second, "I was wondering if I could -"

"Yes, you can have a reunion with your old team tomorrow afternoon from 3 to 6. I'll take your shift, but you'll have to work a _double shift _the next day. Just be back by 6 PM sharp, no tardiness will be accepted," Shino's voice was professionally crisp. Shikamaru blinked a few times at the quickness of Shino's mind. Sometimes the Aburame was so straight forward and well planned – it caught _even Shikamaru _dumbfounded.

Void of words, the Nara simply nodded his head slowly a few times, "Ok, that sounds good…but how did you kno-"

"Computer monitor," Shino grunted beneath his tall collar while tapping a few times at the large keyboard in front of him. _Of course, _thought Shikamaru, _he can see and hear everything I say with that thing._

Shikamaru cleared his throat a bit, "So you were eavesdropping on my conversation with Tenten?"

"No…" there was less confidence in the Aburame's voice as he paused before going around the truth, "I was simply checking in on you, and I happened to check in at that particular moment." Shikamaru sighed and nodded pointlessly, knowing that was the ANBU way of saying yes. Most ANBU went _around_ the truth when having to divulge something shaming, including himself.

Shikamaru gave one last smirk of confidence before saying, "Then I'd better be going to spread the word to Asuma Sensei, Ino, and Chouji." Without another thought, he pulled on his mask and relinquished the headquarters once more; assuming Shino had nothing else to speak of with him. And once again, Shino's eyes were attentively studious to the computer monitor, but this time in a more complicated manner – half the screen focused on the Nara, half on the Hyuuga.

Shino scrutinized it all with an eternal smirk hidden by his collar.

* * *

It had been exactly 8:00 PM that night when Tenten pelted the hospital room door open. Breathing uneven, clothes dripping from the pouring rain outside, a scowl on her face - this couldn't be good. The Hyuuga had been supervising the clock ever since she left – she had been gone for approximately an hour and fifteen minutes. The girl traipsed her feet in, a beyond-irritated look on her face.

"Tenten-san, where have you bee-"

Sakura's worried voice was cut off by Tenten's annoyance, "You." She turned her head sharply to glare at Neji, "I got my whole body soaked in freezing rain just to organize a stupid reunion with the old Team Gai! We're leaving tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM to our old training ground, and if you refuse to go, I _swear_ I am gonna kic-"

"I'll go," Neji said calmly, stopping her from continuing any further with her threat.

There was an awkward pause that resulted in vigorous staring between the kunoichi and the ANBU. Sakura, like always, felt the need for this behavior to cease, "Tenten-san! I'll take you to the bathroom and help you change into a new fresh hospital robe." The girl's geniality didn't seem to have much effect on Tenten's mood, but the chocolate haired kunoichi hesitantly agreed. Neji watched emptily as Sakura pulled out a long white robe from the hospital dresser in their room and guide Tenten out the hallway to the _real_ bathroom.

_The old Team Gai_, Neji thought – and for a brief moment he remembered it all – Gai Sensei, Lee, 100 laps around Konoha…maybe tomorrow wouldn't be as bad a day as this…no…not even near how bad this day turned out.

* * *

Tenten woke up to a resplendent beacon of sunlight directly hitting her eyelids. She fastidiously griped and rolled over, trying to face her back towards the bright light. Neji, who had been well awake for a few hours now, had been watching her rest – as there was nothing better to do. She must've completely forgotten everything that had happened to her yesterday – because it was now already 2 PM.

"N-neji?" Tenten groaned as she rolled back over and faced him. She blinked shoddily a few times before sitting upright on her bed. "Neji?" She repeated, staring emptily at the impassive man, "What time is i-" Her eyes suddenly widened and her jaw dropped slightly. Her eyes sauntered a bit farther down Neji's bed – and the Hyuuga followed her chocolate brown eyes and quickly realized what she was looking at.

Neji cussed internally, knowing this would cause serious trouble, "Tenten…I didn't-"

"Oh! It's almost 3 PM! We better get dressed so we're not late!" she immediately put on fake joyfulness, in a failed attempt to veil her hurt. She recoiled out of bed in the white robe Sakura had helped her put on and opened the dresser, picking out her usual white top with gold lace and burgundy baggy capris. She gamboled out the room and into the hallway, rushing to the bathroom to change. Sakura had helped Tenten's leg recover a bit the night before – she said the pain was from Neji inserting too much chakra for her body to handle.

The Hyuuga looked at what Tenten had spotted earlier that had marred her heart – it was the Haruno, who was now acutely napping on a chair next to his bed, her head resting on his legs. She must've been busy healing his leg more overnight and fallen asleep from exhaustion – typical spunky apprentice of Tsunade – never giving up until the job was done.

He shifted his calves a bit, "Sakura." The girl stirred at the sudden movement of the substance she rested her head on, and on hearing her name being called. She blinked a few times, raising her head off the Hyuuga's legs. A soft yawn escaped her mouth as she daintily rubbed her sleepy eyes with her pale hands, un-blurring her vision. Within a few seconds, she was back upright on her chair, giving her attentive ears to the Hyuuga.

"N-neji…" she yawned once more and rubbed her eyes, "What is it?"

The ivory-eyed prodigy frowned, "I need to change now."

"Oh…" the girl stared obliviously for a few seconds before waking up a bit more, "What time is it?"

There was a pause before words unexpectedly slipped out of Neji's mouth quietly, "Tenten was upset…" Other than the austere inflection he carried, there were subtle edges of regret and guilt in his voice. And with those words, Sakura irrevocably seemed to understand what he was talking about.

"Neji…" Sakura's eyes widened briefly before softening, "Go-gomenasai…" She had by now realized that he meant Tenten misreckoned the situation.

The Hyuuga cleared his throat before regaining his usual professional edge, "Well, I must start changing now, so if you don't mind…" his voice trailed off, assuming she knew what he meant.

"Oh! Of course! Gomen gomen, I'll just head out to see if any other patients need assistance…" her voice was cheerfully embarrassed as the pink haired kunoichi stood up and quickly shuffled out the door with her words, closing the door behind her.

Neji sighed and got off the raucous cot, pulling his old clothes up and over his head. Over the years of metamorphosing into an ANBU, his upper body in particular had become much more toned from all the strenuous training and missions – but he was still, like Tenten had last remembered, slender and muscular at the same time – something Tenten secretly much sanctioned. As the young man was walking over to the dresser to get a new set of clothes, he heard a small gasp come from behind him – causing him to immediately turn his head to the source of the detonation. In the doorway he found a familiar Tenten, looking the same as she had when they were 16 – same outfit, same hairstyle, same flamboyant face…but of course, there was no room for those kinds of conceptions in the head of an ANBU. The Hyuuga caught himself ogling at his former teammate's accoutrement before catching himself when he saw the red tinge start to spread throughout her cheeks.

She started to stammer in embarrassment, "G-gomenasai. I-I thought that you'd have finished changing…I'll just leave n-"

"You can stay," came the surprising answer from the Hyuuga – which did nothing to help the embarrassment in Tenten's face. The attempted welcoming should have been full of arrogance and ostentation – but instead she found something else – she found hints of longing and lust in it, and she wondered if it was just her overly dramatic imagination acting up. She couldn't help but just watch dumbly as he schlepped on his cream colored traditional Hyuuga robes instead of his black ANBU ones – which made the taciturnity between them drive Tenten mad.

As desperate as she was to break the silence, what came out of her mouth surprised them both, "So…how are things with Sakura?"

She quickly slammed her hand over her mouth as soon as those words were prattled – knowing they were the wrong ones to say.

"You act as if I'm in love with her," his voice came without a single trace of uneasiness.

Tenten bit her lower lip, trying to hide her pain, "No…_you_ act like it…"

The girl surveyed the cream-colored, lifeless ground, not daring to meet the Hyuuga's eyes – only to find, a few moments later, those strong familiar arms of his wrapped around her waist.

_To Be Continued…_


	4. Unbearable Reality

_**A/N:** It's been way too long…forgive me please if you have to reread the story to catch up on what was going on again. So basically, if you've bothered to read my Author's Notes, I'll explain that I've just not been on fanfiction in a devastatingly long time because of: (one) Writer's Block, but mainly (two) School and the workload I have gotten. But I hate to just leave two stories unfinished. It bugs me to death. And now that it's Spring Break for me, I'm sure I can jump start my writing again. Thanks for those who stuck with me -hugs- So I wanted to end this story with this chapter, but this chapter alone was too long...so I'll hopefully make the next chapter the last of this story...and really I will post the next chapter within a week I hope. No more waiting for months! Yay!  
_

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fanfiction._

* * *

**Possession**

by nejiandtentenfan

Chapter 4: Unbearable Reality

After the pang of shock started to dwindle from her head and the numbness starting seeping away from her thoughts, the emotions that she had once tried to suppress came speeding past her in a blur now. So fast, it was more than she could handle. The struggles that she had gone through, he was her world to her, then he just left one day? How could any sane person just do that to the group of people that was practically their family? She had the sudden impulse to break free from his grip, which would not be hard by any means, but something unexplainable welled up inside of her and before she could react, her body went limp and she crumpled into his iron hold. The tears came swifter than she could have anticipated, but she didn't care anymore. There was nothing in this world of any worth to her. This thought melted away almost as quickly as her tears had first started. Tenten was now more than utterly confused to say the least.

She was completely lost. Nothing made sense to her. Everything she had ever felt made no sense now, all she could feel was the man's warm lips encased around her own. She didn't remember when they started or how it happened, but without thinking, she placed her arms around him and did the one thing she hadn't had a chance to do these past few years - follow her instincts.

The girl could feel Neji's hand playing through her hair as he fiercely kissed her, his passion and yearning growing greater and greater with each passing moment. It was almost as if he was compensating for an emptiness within him that was now being unleashed on this girl. He reached for her shirt, until she opened her eyelids slightly and gently broke the kiss and pushed his hand away.

"Not now..." she breathed the worlds out while huskily searching for oxygen, "We need to see Gai Sensei."

Acting as if nothing had happened, the girl gave Neji one final glance and walked towards the door before saying, "You better hurry up if you're coming along."

As the door closed and Neji was once again in the room alone, he stared at the whitewashed walls dumbly at what had just happened. While the actions were somewhat foreign to him and against everything he had ever claimed to believe in, he felt somehow fulfilled. But the warmth still left on his lips kept him wanting more.

When Tenten had left, he could have sworn he had seen a corner of her mouth edge upwards.

After snapping himself back into reality, he whispered, "Gai Sensei..."

Unlike Tenten, Neji really hadn't thought about anyone on the team since he had been recruited into ANBU...almost no one anyways. He mused over the team that they used to form. Just like every other team formed in the village of Konoha, theirs was a perfect match. Not just skill wise, but they also excelled in personalities and compatibilities. Once he realized his former kunoichi teammate must have been at least a mile ahead of him by now, he decided it must be time he started his trek to old team grounds - grounds that he was positive would have the ability to rip every nostalgic memory he had out of him, ANBU or not.

* * *

Ino sighed as she leaned against an ancient tree that had undergone many more years of training than her generation of shinobi had.

Chouji was sitting next to her, with eyes closed, attempting to appear deep in meditation. However, he fooled no one. Just by the tense apparel his face wore, even a child could have accurately guessed that Chouji's nerves were in knots and he was simply trying to calm himself down.

As Ino's arms were crossed in front of her chest, she tapped her slender fingers a few more times against her elbow before groaning loudly enough for Asuma Sensei, who was standing with his hands in his pocket and a cigarette in his mouth, to turn and give her a peculiar look. Even Chouji, who refused to open his eyes had almost jumped when hearing his female teammate in such an irritated manner.

Asuma Sensei eyed the girl before raising his eyebrow and speaking rather calmly, "Is there a problem Ino?"

The girl huffed, and at the moment every crevice in her face was plainly visible to the naked eye as she scrunched her face slightly, obviously extremely annoyed at their current situation.

"How long are we going to keep waiting for Shikamaru? It's almost been an hour! If he doesn't show up in the next two minutes I'm leaving and pretending I never got tricked into something so stupid..." Ino ranted.

Chouji, who lifted one eyelid halfway, looked at Asuma Sensei and spoke, "As for me too, Sensei. I'm tired of this. My energy level is so depleted already since I haven't eaten in so long. I would have thought of snacks if I had known it was going to take this long."

The boy closed his eyes and went back to pondering the wonders of the world deeply again, or perhaps it was just the wonder of starvation that he was now experiencing.

Asuma, who was now just as irritated at their lame whining as Ino was at Shikamaru, opened his mouth to scold the two ninjas for acting 10 years underage, until all six of their ears seemed to perk up when they heard a twig behind them snap so faintly. Their heads all turned to the source of the noise, and a flood of emotion streaked down everyone's bodies when they saw their ANBU strategist standing there.

Asuma cracked a smile, "Nara."

Ino bit back tears that threatened to well up in her eyes when she saw her former teammate that had left her so easily and without care. She gasped for air and whispered only audible enough for Chouji, who was right underneath her not meditating anymore, to hear.

"Shikamaru..."

The Nara raised his eyebrow at his former team and smirked.

Somehow, this was exactly how he pictured his former team to turn out - still exactly the same as when they were Genin.

* * *

"Tenten-san!" the more mature childish face of Lee brightened as soon as the former female lotus blossom of the team walked into the forest into their old favorite training spot.

Tenten looked around, taking in all of her surroundings. Absolutely nothing but the age of the forest had changed since the last time Team Gai trained here and Tenten had last seen Neji as a Jounin. She took in a large gulp of woody air and calmed her body down. _I'm here for a Team Gai reunion, not to think about Neji..._she found herself thinking.

She grinned widely at Lee and he ran up to her and they hugged as if they were six-year-olds, swigging back and forth wildly.

"Tenten-san! I have not seen your smile as genuine and true as it appears right before me now since we were Chuunin! Now I truly understand Gai Sensei's reason for calling you the lotus blossom of Team Gai all these years!" Lee's eyes were overflowing with emotions of joy.

_Gai Sensei_. Tenten had almost forgotten of the man that taught her everything. The father figure of their group. The role model. She looked over and her grin grew when she saw her old Sensei. A few more wrinkles and gray hairs did nothing to mar his appearance to Tenten. To her, he was still always the never-changing, youthful Maito Gai.

"Tenten-san..." Lee started.

"Tenten," the girl interrupted, implying to drop the over-respectful ending.

Lee's smile only grew wider, "Tenten," a small giggle emitted from his mouth as the name rolled off his tongue, "Where is Neji-san?"

The boy did not dare take the honorific off of their former teammate, current ANBU member's name, for if anyone had thought that the difference between the two shinobi were great at the Genin level, the difference at their current age was now downright startling. This resulted from the simple choice of different paths being chosen. Each leading to a different fate - not that one was any more correct than the other.

There was a sudden awkward pause and silence between all three of them - the forest seemed to have frozen. Even the wind seemed to hush up as the ignorant question was asked so innocently.

"Neji is..." Tenten bit her lower lip with a concerned expression on her face. She had not even thought about whether he would come or not. He had never once clearly stated that he would come along.

"Here," a man finished from behind.

The breath of relief was released from Tenten, and both Lee and Gai's attentions were turned towards their new target.

"NEJI-SAN!" tears started rushing from Lee's face as he crushed the ANBU in a rib binding hug. Either from hidden gratefulness or exhaustion, Neji had allowed Lee to perform this act of welcome just this once.

One could see the tears starting to form in their Sensei's eyes, but he restricted himself from pouring out his greetings to their ANBU friend like Lee had. Because Neji was past the Jounin level, he was not required to respond to Gai as his Sensei. As a senior, Gai had the unquestionable authority over all of them, but as a Sensei, all but one - and that would be the Hyuuga.

"Neji-san, Neji-san, would you like to train together once more as a team with us?" Lee asked excitedly, unaware of the predictable response from not only the one he was speaking to, but also Tenten.

Neji's eyes flickered from Lee's pleading face to Gai's smiling face to the ground for some sort of answer as to how he should respond in an unhurtful way.

Tenten moaned loudly. _Training? For crying out loud, they were just in the hospital!_

Neji grinned, after all the drama he has gone through in the hospital, there is no way he would want to go back and deal with Tenten questioning his time spent with Sakura.

"What would you like us to do, Gai Sensei?" Neji made the unexpected declaration and Gai Sensei's eyes gushed those signature river of tears. Training with the old Team Gai was a miracle enough, but even having your prodigy ANBU student still call you Sensei was much more than Gai had bargained for.

Tenten would have moaned, but they were kicking tree stumps before she could even utter a word.

"One, two, three, Tenten please hurry up!" Gai called to his female student.

"Hai." Tenten muttered before bringing her leg harder to the stump. She was going to need to stay twice as long now in the hospital, she thought.

"We're starting over now. One, two, three..." Gai's chanting seemed to blend in with Tenten's various thoughts of what she would do if she _did _have to stay in the hospital for a few more weeks. Would Neji stay there? Wait, what was she thinking? Who cares if that stoic Hyuuga in love with Sakura stayed in the same room as she.

Although half of Tenten felt like pitying herself for being in love with this man, the other half knew the truth and knew she'd have to fess up to it sometime soon before all opportunities were lost, and she'd have to go back to her old lifestyle of drinking, sleeping, and waking up to a reality she couldn't bear.

_To Be Continued...(Really)_


	5. To New Beginnings

**A/N: **_Since it's been so long, and my writing style went through so many changes through the chapters of this story, I think it's unfair to make you guys read all four chapters again just to remember what's going on! I just did, and I almost cringed at my over embellished vocabulary in Chapter 3 – such a mistake! I'll edit it once I actually post out a chapter or two more! For now, here's a summary of what happened in Chapters 1-4:_

_At the age of 16, Neji was taken away to become an ANBU member, as were Shikamaru and Shino. Tenten's heart was crushed because she was going to tell him how she really felt about him that day, but never got the chance to. She spent the next two years wasting herself at the bar and dreaming of Neji's departure._

_One day, at a bar, after Tenten gets drunk, a man attempts to rape Tenten. Neji was quickly sent from ANBU to save her. She discovered that it was Neji and was infuriated with him for leaving. Neji used a technique on her that would give her some chakra back in an attempt to heal her, but he didn't know it would drain his own body tremendously._

_They end up in the same hospital room, and Tenten is jealous of Sakura for spending so much time with Neji recently. Neji also thinks that Tenten has a fancy for Shikamaru after he spotted her with her arms around him with his Byakugan. In the last chapter, they both had a moment of weakness and gave into their lustful desires, but only for a few moments. Shikamaru and Neji are now both at their team reunions._

_That's just a quick synopsis so far, but there are some entertaining details in between if you really do want to go back and reread the story. I'm sorry for the late update, but I really did want to just delete this fic until I realized how many people supported it and were waiting for an update! It's honestly only because of you guys that I've decided to continue to develop my writing skills and provide quality Nejitens. But after a year, reading my old works are so horrible!!! What was I thinking?? From now on, I promise higher quality, haha! And I'll definitely fix Chapter 3's confusing language soon._

_Thanks again for all you out there that continue to read my fics and review so I can become a better writer! I appreciate it!_

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fanfiction._

_

* * *

_

**Possession**

by nejiandtentenfan

Chapter 5: To New Beginnings

On the surface, Konoha was a scenic village on this sunny afternoon. The blazing orb above beamed with all its might, the trees sang to the slight breeze that danced through the streets every now and then, the crowded marketplace hummed with eager customers and brimmed with fragrant scents of the fully stocked snack stands. However, a closer look into the forests of the small village, offered quite a different panorama.

"Nine hundred eighty-eight, nine hundred eighty-nine, nine hundre- try to keep up my dear Tenten!" Gai Sensei's voice blared through one ear and out the other one of the kunoichi's.

All Tenten knew and sensed of this supposed spectacular day were the unbearably smoldering conditions, thumps of feet hitting tree stumps, and the odorous essence of ninja sweat all around. She hadn't trained this vigorously in years. Now that Neji was back, the level and speed at which the drills were performed were increased by many fold.

The girl couldn't take it. Her worn leg was nagging at her to cease all movement. It was impossible for her to continue training even if she _wanted_ to. She hastily limped over to the nearest sturdy tree and lent her complete body weight to the tree to support. Her breathing was reckless. She closed her eyes and used both hands to grip her leg that was not yet fully healed. _Ignore the throbbing, ignore the throbbing, ignore the throbbing..._

All three of the men took immediate notice of the kunoichi's weak state.

Gai instantly raised his hand to signal a halt to the severe torture session.

At his master's OK, Lee instinctively ran over to Tenten's side, and offered a supporting shoulder on which her arm could rest on. Without a single trace of emotion displayed on his regal-like countenance, Neji watched silently, not budging a single millimeter from his current position.

"Gai-sensei, as much as I love to train, I think it would be best if we took a small break," Lee's voice was filled with concern for his comrade.

Maito Gai grinned at seeing his pupil's encompassing affection for his teammates, and agreed, "Yes, Lee. I think this would be an appropriate time for us to end what may be our final training session with Neji."

Tenten's eyes widened at the words that sharply ended the last sentence. She snapped back into reality. This might very well be their last chance to bond as a team. She gave a quick shake of the head and frantically tried to shrug off Lee's grip on her hand around his shoulder.

"No, I'm OK...I just need a small break, and I'll train in a few minutes...you guys keep going…" Tenten insisted desperately, still trying to be released from Lee's grasp.

Catching on to what Tenten was trying to do, the cunning Gai-sensei found an alternate solution.

"Do not be silly, Tenten! I know every one of my students love training with the burning passion that I had back in my youth, but I must emphasize a key point – your body needs fuel to train and grow! Therefore, I find nothing more appropriate than to go grab a bite at Ichiraku's Ramen shop this instant!"

As an eternal gratefulness surged through her body at what Gai Sensei had generously tried to do for her, Tenten let a small grin show through.

"Are you sure Gai-sensei?" questioned Lee in a hesitant voice. Anything that could possibly take Lee away from his training always greatly distressed the young man.

"I have not been more sure of anything in my entire life...excluding the many times Kakashi has questioned my gender," Gai quickly paused to pull out the collar of his jumpsuit, scan the contents that lied within, and continued, "Nope. I'm sure! Let's go eat!"

With a quick childish giggle from Tenten, a "Yosh!" and armthrust from Lee, and a extremely well concealed smirk from Neji, Team Gai was off for their homecoming meal.

* * *

"Ahh...what a delicious bowl of Ichiraku's supreme ramen! Nothing satisfies the soul like 32 unique toppings all compiled into one bowl of steamy, slow cooked broth..." Chouji plopped the final piece of grilled pork happily into his welcoming mouth, leaned back in his seat, and continued to reminisce with his team to his heart's content.

"No wonder you haven't changed a bit Chouji. You're definitely getting your recommended daily caloric intake..." Shikamaru said while eyeballing the many emptied bowls sitting in front of the ever-hungry warrior.

Chouji abruptly lifted his head, widened his eyes, and inquired to the Nara, "Are you saying I've gotten f-"

"NO!!" Shikamaru suddenly bursted, shaking his hands in fraught. "That isn't what I meant at all! I was just admiring all the muscle you've built in such a short time! Uhh...er...I mean...what is that pork that you've been eating made out of? Protein pigs?"

Chouji smiled with a chuckle and returned to his previous lounging position cheerfully, "Oh. Well, now that you mention it, I _have_ been doing more weight training since you left! Just because you're the only ANBU here doesn't mean you're the only one who does intensive training!"

The rumbling laugh that followed boomed with great might. Shikamaru looked nervously at his comrade for a second. He was positive that no training from ANBU could prepare anyone for the wrath that would ensue if one were to use the words "Chouji" and "fat" in the same sentence in front of the powerful beast. As for someone even as strategic and nimble as Shikamaru...no chance.

"Weight training? Chouji I've never seen you weight train since Shikamaru left!" Ino accused.

"Well at least I've been _doing_ something!" Chouji shot back.

Shikamaru was sitting in between the two hot tempered ninjas - something he would possibly regret in a few minutes.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Ino raised her voice and slammed her hand on the table, the dishes clinking from the vibrations.

"It _means_ that at least I've been doing something other than crying and whining since Shikamaru left!" Chouji practically spat.

"I do not _cry_ and _whine_!!"

" 'InoShikaCho is nothing without Shikamaru! When will he ever come back for me?'" Chouji imitated in an excessively shrill, high-pitched voice.

Ino's face instantly flushed red, half due to her seething anger continuing to intensify, and the other half due to the embarrassment Chouji was causing her right in Shikamaru's face.

Shikamaru laughed nervously, anticipating an epic battle to break out soon if he didn't stop it. _How troublesome..._he thought. Fearing Ino's cat-like nails and Chouji's tank-sized foot, Shikamaru decided that it would be less taxing on his part if he just tried to leave completely.

Shikamaru took an obvious look at the clock and said with exaggerated shock, "Look at the time! It's so late...Neji and Shino will kill me if I don't get back to my shift!"

Ino and Chouji abruptly ceased their bickering at their friend's standing up. Shikamaru got in a position to leave, and neither Ino, nor Chouji knew how to prevent what they dreaded from occuring.

"Well it's time I should be headin..." Shikamaru stopped in his tracks when Team Gai walked in through the small doorway of the ramen shack, "over to ask for menus for our good pals!"

Almost comically, Shikamaru put on a wide smile and marched stiffly to find the waiter. On the way, he made eye contact with Neji and they had a mutual understanding: they needed to leave soon. Neji's slight nod was only visible and understood by its recipient.

"Neji!" Ino exclaimed in surprise, "When did you get back?"

"Just visiting," Neji put it bluntly.

"Oh I see...well have a seat! All of you, have a seat!" Ino's hospitality skills that she had honed for many years from working at her family's flower boutique were kicking into full swing.

Neji quickly took a seat; the word nonsense did not exist in his dictionary.

"Don't mind if I do!" Lee said happily, flopping down in the chair next to Neji.

Quickly sensing Tenten's dismay at her the occupant status of that particular chair, Ino deliberately chucked a pair of chopsticks onto the ground.

"Oh no, my chopsticks! Lee, would you mind getting them for me?" Ino said in an overly ladylike pitch.

Dutifully, Lee put his hand to his forehead in an army-like manner and raced to fetch the pair of chopsticks on the ground.

"Tenten!" Ino hissed, and signaled for her to take his seat.

Realizing what Ino was trying to do, Tenten shook her head furiously.

Ino rolled her eyes. She walked over and positioned herself between Lee and Tenten. Tactfully, she said, "Lee, what would I do without you?"

She bent over to "check on him" and used here rear to bump Tenten into the seat. The chocolate haired girl was so caught off guard, she daintily flew into the chair with an "oomph."

Neji would have stared longer at the scene if Shikamaru had not saved the day by reentering - not empty handed. Shikamaru grinned as he held the extra large bottle of premium sake he had accommodated high in the air with pride.

"A toast!" Shikamaru said loudly, trying his hand at regulating the atmosphere a bit.

He quickly made everyone get seated, Tenten ending up next to Neji, and poured everyone a glass.

"And for you..." he grinned at Lee, "an extra large cup of water!"

Shikamaru pushed a tall glass of clear liquid towards the slightly disappointed boy.

"Sorry buddy, I tried to get something else, but all they had was milk. I asked for milk, but apparently Naruto was here a few hours ago...so...you know how that goes..." Shimakaru looked genuinely sorry while explaining his crime to Lee.

Lee's face instantly lit up at Shikamaru's thoughtfulness. He slapped Shikamaru hard across the back, which sent the saliva in his mouth spraying out, "Thank you Shikamaru! I know that I can always rely on such an honorable shinobi as yourself!"

Shikamaru nodded, with a feeble smile which required most of the strength left in his jaw.

However, he had to muster up some temporary authority to announce, "A toast..."

There was a pause.

"...to what?" Ino inquired after a few seconds.

Shikamaru thought about his answer for a very long time, before quickly eying Neji and grinning, "To new beginnings!"

Everyone smiled and toasted "to new beginnings." Tenten smiled shyly before braving the eye contact she made with Neji.

"To new beginnings," Tenten said so quietly he had to pay close attention to the shape of her lips to understand what she had said.

Neji nodded, but looked intently into the depths of her dazzling hazel, auburn eyes. The light hit her face so elegantly. Every feature was enhanced, her sparkling eyes, her perfectly sculpted jawline, her delicately fuchsia cheekbones...everything about her captivated his mind as their glasses made a delicate _clink!_

It took every muscle, every organ, every tissue in his body to keep himself from grabbing her in that instant and pressing his lips against her beautifully rose infused ones. For the first time in two years, he actually didn't want to go back to ANBU. For the first time in two years, he wanted stay with the ones he loved, an emotion that penetrated so deep into his heart that he forgot all the rules in the book.

_**To Be Continued...**_


End file.
